Guild of the Platinum Dragon

...Continues with Red Brands...

We brought the goods to Phandalin, finding Gundren wasn’t there. So, when we delivered them to Barthen’s Provisions, we (Well, I) weren’t suprised when we were aproached by a man. He introduced himself as SIldar Hallwinter, the ambassador of Neverwinter. He started talking and when Elthanias showed him the empty scroll case, he said it contained a map to some lost caves that Gundren was attempting to discover. I haven’t payed much attention to the conversation, honestly. I probably should have.

He told us how we have a room and dinner in the local inn, which was a nice gesture. As we were going to the inn, we found a shrine or a well of some sort that was dedicated to the deity of Luck. Each one of us dropped some coinage into it, except Dragar. He was wiser then all of us when he left a gold coin on the border of the well, so that someone in need can use it. I hope that the Deity won’t be angry at the taker.

As soon as we entered the Inn, my brother went to sleep. He was waking up before us even when he doesen’t go earlier to sleep, so this coudln’t be good. Though, I haven’t given it much thought at the time when we sat around the table and ordered our dinner. One thing that did catch my attention is the, as we later found out, Red Brands. They were talking about their accomplishments. Ofcourse, you can guess that they didn’t do anything productive by now. They were plundering, stealing, making a mess, and they thought it was something to brag about?

They were preparing to leave by throwing their dished off the table, which they later flipped. After they left, one of us called the bartender, asking him what all that fuss was about. He explained what and who they are in a few short sentences, visibly scared and uncomfortable. But we found out enough about their gang. All of us except my brother.

We went to sleep, and in that time nothing happens. Usually. As I was told later (I can’t confirm any of this since I wasn’t present when it happened)), since I wasn’t woken up as easily by my brother, unlike the rest, he had some adventures. When he was done sleeping, he decided to go for a walk, passing by what we learned later was a suspicious Inn (The home of Red Brands) and walking up to the Ruins, another one of the suspicious buildings.

He heard two people talking, so he had to make a joke of some sorts. When one of them asked who he was, he said something like “Your subconsciousness.”, thinking he was witty. In the moment, it might have been funny to him, but when he arrived all bloody, it wasn’t really amusing. Anyway, he said he’s going to deal with them personally, as they have no sense of humor. Though, I think he’ll just get into more trouble.

Anyway, we woke up, and the others had a talk. I really should start to speak more, but there’s nothing I had to add. They talked about Red Brands, and my brother’s adventures. He made a turban or something so they wouldn’t recognize him. If I had the time, I made a little poem, as a friendly and brotherly joke to him.

“Argetlam, the Turban Crowned,because of him, we all frowned.He tried to hide from his mistakes,and thought a turban’s all it takes.

(The first piece of art or music (or whatever you want to call it) that I made after joining The Platinum Dragon is a little mocking Poem. Not the kind I was hoping to get inspiration for. It’s not perfect, either, as it was made late during the night. Though, I am proud of it and hope that, in the future, it becomes atleast one of the more famous children songs.)

Anyway, Dragar went outside to see if Red Brands show up, and they did. He was trying to scare them, I guess. We also talked with SIldar, who was about to give us our next assignment, but we asked to get rid of Red Brands first. We made a visit to the Mayor. He was a coward, and maybe even a traitor to his own town. Or atleast I suspected. He didn’t really seem eager to get rid of the Red Brand rats.

We were also asked to visit Halia Thornton, who had a business with gemstones, jewelry and the like. She said she would give us anything in return for getting rid of Redbrands. Dragar, the honest, good-hearthed warrior he is asked for nothing. Elthanias, the diplomat he is asked for an alliance with the guild. My brother asked for a gemstone, or jewelry, I don’t recall. I asked for a board, or a stone panel with our names. Though, there was a joke about getting a statue, and I hope she didn’t missunderstand.

Thought, Halia did say some things more usefull then giving us the offer. She told us about the Red brands, about the real owner of the ruins, who didn’t do anything with them as of yet. It seemed suspicious. Another thing she said was about the leader of the Red Brands, Glasstaff. It sounds somewhat Elven to me. Maybe it’s a nickname based on the usage of a spell or an item? Or maybe that person just happens to be a wizard who changed his name to sound more important. Anyway, I don’t like it.

Halia told us to visit one of the elders in the town, a halfling, with a family name Alderleaf. Apparently, one of her offprings had a birthday. It was quite cosy inside, and it was just the atmosphere I liked. I really don’t like how much I stopped appreciating socialization. It is in my nature and I ignored it. This was the last time, though. I won’t be stopped from having a drink with someone, or generally being a good person unless something serious is happening.

It was quite a birthday, too, and each member of the big halfling family was celebrating. They have all been so happy! It was a sight that I loved seeing. Too bad we had something else to do later on, which will ruin the atmosphere for us. Atleast I had some fun playing my flute for the attendants of the party. Elthanias and Dragar also showed a couple of their own tricks, which I am always glad to see. We could have been a little performing band if we weren’t adventurers already.

So, Elthanias and Dragar talked with her, an activity I also have to start doing. We found out that the ruins have a secret entrance, and that another of her offspirngs, Milo, can take us there. There were also talks about a, now abandoned, mine. But, the focus today was on the Red Brands. No one tyrannizes a town and hurts my brother if I’m around. Not that I could deal with them alone, but if I have someone, I can help him deal with them like no one else can. Though, one of the main reasons of helping people, except to help them, is that feeling of being respected and honored in an area. Being a hero, almost famous. Besides, the fame I want is not obtained by villainy.

Milo brought us to the entrance, which lead us to the, generously said, basement of the ruins trough a tunnel. It obviously wasn’t refined and there was a rift in the ground, with a couple of bridges spanning across it. Fortunatly, I didn’t have to carry a lantern for Dragar as there were torches on the wall. I swear, if I have to do it one more time, I’ll buy him some sort of voodoo enchanted magical whatever glasses that help people see in the dark. Though, considering how, to be rude, usefull he is, and how good-hearthed he is, I don’t mind at the moment of battle.

Speaking of battle, there was suddenly a sense of an upcoming one. And I know that, like the Red Brands, there were little chances of persuading with the creature that appeared. Since I have heard of telepathy before, I can describe this as a form of it. Except, we all heard it. The voice spoke some words that I can’t remember. Elthanias tried to initiate a conversation or cast a spell, something that required words already, but Dragar was faster. He dashed towards what I then saw was a big, one eyes creature. And, it wasn’t stupid if I was to judge by the ability it just showed. Not many people are capable of telepathy without magic.

Now, I acted upon my first reflex of taking the dagger I kept in my boot and throwing it at it. I was focused, throwing it with precision I never had before. My lucky dagger never missed, and this was another confirmation. But, I was suprised at how little the creature minded. As if I rolled snake eyes. Dragar fought it with his flail while Elthanias shot it with bolts of cold ice. My brother used his bow, hitting it with the precision I also had earlier with the dagger. But if the creature managed to live, his arrow would still leave a permanent mark. I tried suggesting it (magicly) to stay still so Dragar can finish him off (I didn’t tell him the last part), but it just brushed my magic off. And, Dragar didn’t need my help, it seemed. He knocked the creature down just as I was going to take my dagger back. My eternal thanks go to Elthanias and his Mage Hand, which retrieved my lucky dagger.

Ofcourse, since we weren’t really hurt, we advanced. I would describe the path we took, but I just followed the rest. The scenario that follows reminded me of an earlier battle. Skeletons and fire, a door (opened this time) in between us, what a combination. There were three of the bone people, and a flask of oil that was splashed on the floor was quickly ignited. I probably should’ve knocked on wood when I said my dagger never missed, as the streak ended. Two of them where already finished when Argetlam wanted to lock one’s arm with his ribcage. Dragar managed to hit him with his flail first.

In the room, three present bandits were alerted. Elthanias put one to sleep instantly, Dragar and Argetlam taking care of one each. Coincidentaly, the one Argetlam was fighting was the one without a sense of humour. So, my brother felt obligated to tell jokes untill the poor guy laughed. I think he died from the wounds, but I’m not sure. Besides, I wanted to either kill all of them, or recruit them to our guild and show them there’s better things then tyranny. By the time I took my dagger, all of them were unconcious.

Then, I saw what they were guarding. Two cells, one with a rotten corpse and one with a woman and two children. They were scared of Dragar, but Elthanias managed to ease the fear. Quickly we gathered some information, some of which was already presumed. It was time to rest, anyway, so we decided to take them back home.

Now that I think about it, Glasstaff must be powerful. He had a creature able to speak trough telepathy and three skeletons at his service. Around twently people listened to his commands. I am interested in this, as we might be over our heads. Either that, or Glasstaff found some scrolls of Necromancy. I hope to meet him.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - 15th June 2016 - Part 2

So here we are, the town of Phandalin. As we’ve collected our reward for delivering the cart with the goods to ‘Barthen’s Provisions’, we were approached by an old man named Sildar Hallwinter, an ambassador from Neverwinter. He asked us how our trip went, which was unexpected, but he quickly explained how he was involved in Gundren’s affairs, and that there’s more to our involvement than we were originally told. We asked him about the dead human we brought with us and he told us how he was Barthen’s apprentice, and to leave the body there, that he’ll take care of it. Right now we deserved some rest, he said, so he got us a room at the local inn. Before we left, though, we also mentioned how we found an empty scroll among the dead horses and he said that it must’ve contained the Wave Echo Caves map. The long lost mines somewhere in the vicinity of Phandelver. Something Gundren was working on discovering.

Phandalin was a nice, quaint little town. A shrine here, a market there… It will do us good to rest here for a bit. As we’ve entered the Stonehill Inn, Sildar told us to go find a table and went to talk to the barkeep. The place was half-empty, yet loud. The source of the noise were four men dressed in red that sat a table away from us. We could not help but overhear them bragging about their mischievous endeavors around the town; robbing, mugging… murdering… The barkeep approached us saying how Sildar arranged everything and offered us today’s meal of the day – a wild boar stew – and drinks. Argetlam actually decided to go straight to bed, but the rest of us were pretty hungry at this point. While we were quietly eating, the thugs got up, made a ruckus throwing their tankards and chairs around, and left the inn. We asked the barkeep who these guys were, as he was cleaning the mess. Very unnerved he told us they were called the Red Brands, a local criminal company, and to leave that subject be. We asked about law enforcement in this town, but he just told us that there’s no such thing in Phandalin and, again, to drop it. We shrugged and finished up our meal, and went upstairs to our room for a good night’s sleep.

I was jolted out of sleep in the middle of the night by a commotion in the room. There by the window, bathed in moonlight, stood our brave Elf Monk covered in blood, Dragar staring him down with his ice-cold gaze. He told us how he woke up a couple of hours earlier, due to his shorter sleep pattern and went about the sleepy town. He ended up wandering around some ruins on the east side of the town and ran into two men dressed in red. No doubt the Red Brands. His immeasurable wit and charisma didn’t shine this time and he took a pretty fair beating, but has managed to deal a couple of decent blows and make a run for it, he said. He also mentioned something about them not having a sense of humor and how he’ll make it his mission for them to get his jokes…? This Red Brand business was now personal. Anyway, I slapped him over the face for being, well, him, told him we’ll talk in the morning, and went back to sleep.

The next morning we continued the discussion. We asked Argetlam if he’d be able to recognize the two guys that attacked him and he confirmed. On the other hand, they’d be able to recognize him, in return, so he quickly fashioned a.. turban(?) out of some sheets, and some sort of shawl to cover his face. While he was busy turning himself into a bedouin, the rest of us went down to get some breakfast. It took a while to get served, so Dragar stepped out to do his daily exercise routine. I followed, standing close to the door and keeping an eye out for those red marauders, and sure enough, they appeared. From a distance, mind you, but still… I signalled to Dragar that they were watching us, so he started doing some highly intricate moves to try and impress and potentially scare them straight. Hope he succeeded… We went back inside to eat and found Sildar sitting at the bar. We asked him about the red bandits and he told us he knows about as much as we do, and to better go and talk to the mayor, Harbin Wester, down at the town hall. Actually he did tell us how their headquarters is over at the Sleeping Giant on the east side (so close to the ruins where Argetlam ran into them…) Sildar was actually there to give us the details on the mission he had us come over for, but we’ve decided we first need to rid this otherwise pleasant little town of these red pests.

There was much left to be desired for at the town hall. The mayor was this frightened, cowardly non-person who wanted to have nothing to do with regards to the Red Brands. “Just leave it be, this doesn’t concern you”, he told us. We tried getting him to give us more information by offering our guild’s services, but he wouldn’t hear a word of it, so we had no other choice but to leave his office. On our way out of the building we were approached by a messenger who told us that a certain Halia Thornton is asking for our presence down at her offices at “Mime’s Exchange” regarding our little investigation. This could’ve been a trap, sure, but we had no other leads so we headed towards her office just down the road.

After a very brief talk with Halia it became more than obvious that she’s the one running this town, not the timid mayor. She was doing business and trading left and right and she would give us “what ever we wanted” in return for ridding Phandalin of Red Brands (which were, no doubt, bad for business). Of course, some of us went all out with the requests: Dragar being a lawful good sort of dragon, refused any reward, and I simply asked for Phandalin to be a “friend town” to the Platinum Dragon Guild. On the other hand, Argetlam asked for an assortment of jewels and Tarian asked for… a statue in his appearance. Your older bro’s starting to really rub off on you, huh? In any case, we found out some really useful information from Halia; that ruin east from the Sleeping Giant (where Argetlam was doing his stand-up bit) was owned by some guy Marques (we’ll need to look into him), and the leader of the Red Brands a guy simply known as Glasstaff, and they’re supposedly involved with the Craigmouth goblins (the ones we’ve exterminated in that cave). We were also to find a halfling called Quelline Alderleaf, one of the town elders who should know more about the ruins. Right now she can be found back at the tavern, celebrating one of her many kids’ birthday.

We got back to the tavern, and it was quite a sight. A dozen or so halflings were sitting around two joined tables, eating, drinking, laughing… having a jolly good time. We approached Quelline, introduced ourselves and told her we were sent by Halia. She, of course, didn’t want to talk just now, but she invited all of us to join the party and continue the conversation afterwards. It was quite fun. We did some light tricks to entertain the kids, like Dragar freezing a couple of tankards, and myself doing a minor illusion in a form of a bunny running across the table, while Tarian was playing his flute for the birthday boy. After the party was over all of us went to their house to discuss the ruins. Quelline told us how a long time ago the dwarves and gnomes were working in the Wind Echo mines, digging up iron and ore, but the caves are now long abandoned and their location is mostly unknown. However, that ruin owned by Marques might be connected to the mines and apparently there’s a secret entrance just around the hill, eastbound. Milo Alderleaf, her eldest, would show us exactly where, so we gave our thanks for the hospitality and were on our way.

Milo brought us to the entrance hidden behind some bushes, just off the road. We thanked him for his help and he scuttered back home while there was still daylight. We entered the cave and passed through a tunnel leading up to a large open space lit with torches along the walls (which was very helpful for Dragar), and a couple of bridges across the rift that ran the length of the area. As we were walking along the rift towards an opening on the other end, literally out of nowhere we heard a voice coming from… everywhere at once? It was as if it was projected directly into our minds. “I can seee youuu…” it whispered. We suddenly saw this big one-eyed creature staring at us from the edge of the rift, grinning widely. I was just about to ask it what it wants, when I saw Dragar lurch towards him waving his flail. He hit it right across the head and the beast started fighting back, trying to claw his eyes out. Argetlam started showering it with arrows, while Tarian threw his dagger at it, sticking it in its skull. I casted a couple of well-directed Rays of Frost and soon enough the creature fell back into the rift just before Tarian managed to take his dagger out of its skull. Luckily I managed to get it back for him using Mage Hand. We crossed one of the bridges and headed towards the far end of the area. There we found some boxes and sacks lying around, filled with food and other provisions that the bandits procured by, no doubt, less than legitimate means. We turned the right corner and saw a door at the end of a short walkway. We opened the door and were met by three skeletons in a smallish chamber. We managed to use the door as a barricade, held by Dragar, so taught by past experiences he, again, brought an oil flask, which he tossed right in between the skeletons and followed with a lantern. The skeletons burst in flames which, again, made it much easier to take them out. Argetlam, of course, had another luminous idea… He pulled one of his locks from his pocket and leaped towards one of the remaining skeletons to try and lock its arm to its ribcage. (Un)fortunately, Dragar finished him off with a swift blow to the head before Argetlam got to act upon his ludicrous shenanigans. All that commotion alerted a couple of bandits who appeared on the doorstep just to the left of us. There were three of them and Argetlam recognized one of them from his encounter yesterday. I quickly cast Sleep on them, but only one succumbed. Dragar pinned the left one to the floor while Argetlam started beating his guy to a pulp, all the while telling him a bunch of “hilarious” jokes and yelling at him to laugh. I approached the sleeping guy and put my foot and a dagger against his neck, just in case he wakes up. We found that this other chamber was a brig of sorts, with holding cells on both sides. The left one was empty but a rotting corpse on the floor, but the right one housed a very frightened mother and her two children. I searched the sleeping guy for a key while Argetlam ended up beating his audience to death. We stripped the remaining two Red Brands of all their belongings, locked them in the left cell and interrogated them for a bit, finding out that there are approximately twenty of them active in the area. Dragar approached the other cell and unlocked it, but the three of them were even more petrified by the sight of his towering presence. I tried to ease them up a bit saying they have nothing to fear from our dragon friend, which helped a bit. We told them how we’re there to help get rid of the Red Brands for good and we escorted them out of the cave. We wanted to get back inside and continue searching the rest of the cave, but they pleaded with us to escort them back to the town. It was already getting dark, meaning the remaining bandits will soon be back at their lair, so we agreed and decided to come back tomorrow and finish what we started.

It all starts with a wagon...

By the time of writing this entry, I’ve already been trough enough things to fill up two entries! That means, entry #4 is going to be on it’s way soon. And this little story will probably end with entry #5

Ah, but, I really should start with the beginning. We were hired by Gundren Rockseeker to protect some…. Well, groceries. I won’t bother to lie, I was a little dissapointed. To hire protection for simple groceries! He could have asked for cheaper less experienced adventurers. Though, that still doesen’t mean we earned much.

One thing that did interest me though, was the possibility of getting more jobs at the end of this one. Maybe even more complex or, dare I say, challenging ones? Well, if nothing, he said that, in case he’s not there, we should bring the groceries to Barthen’s provisions, which offers a possibility. It came to me that he might not appear because he has some… Fishy bussiness and therefore may be endangered. Well, I’m probably just overthinking. It’s not in the nature of our guild to be involved with such people, sadly. Besides, we were told he was doing something, somewhere with someone, I think… Not that I payed attention.

So, my brother went too, ofcourse. You might know him from my previous entries. A bold, rash Wood elf, user of martial arts. And, my second favourite Half elf, Elthanias was there. He uses arcane energy, though it’s unstable and goes wild now and then. And, last, but certanly not the least, our front line fighter Dragar, the silver dragonborn. I’m always glad to have him by my side, even though we probably don’t share opinions.

Now, we were supposed to escort the wagon ourselves, from Neverwinter to Phandalin. Ofcourse we discovered Ale as part of the groceries, but my brother quickly put it under a lock… Well, a chain, to be specific, so others don’t fall to the temptation. Now, I would describe the travels and the sighting, but I have two problems. First off, I’m not that sort of artist. I prefer telling legends, adventures and that sort of things when I’m writing or speaking of something. Music is still my first priority, though. Second off, there really wasn’t anything special to see, that or I wasn’t looking.

As the day went trough and became night, we reached a waystone. Elthanias talked how it was one of the safer places by the road, made for travelers. If there was a forest nearby, I’d rather sleep on the branches of a tree myself. Not that I don’t like solid ground, it’s just that other creatures like it too. Wolves, bears, you name it. But, that’s why three of us slept while the other kept watch. And we switched around too, so almost everyone got to be awake at one point of the night.

So, we woke up, we ate, we started traveling again, and we stopped. Why did we stop? There were two dead horse corpses. A typical ambush, most of us though. And it was. So, my brother decided to fire an arrow into a bush on the side of the road. One of the bushes, as there was a second one on the other side. Now, Elthanias was going to chant a sleep spell, but he noticed his staff was gone. He quickly ran into the wagon, seeing it stuck and chained there.

That’s one of the reasons I later bought a pouch with spell components. To fix my brother’s rash decisions. Anyway, I threw a pretty powerfull sleep spell into the other bush, no noise coming from it after that. Arrows flew all around as Dragar raised his shield to protect all of us. Elthanias came back, putting three out of four goblins in the other bush to sleep, the other trying to run away. But my brother was quicker, sending an arrow trough his head. Now, I may have missed some happening here and there, but I was focused elsewhere.

Out of the eight goblins, seven were slain. Seven ears I collected, two more later that day. That was nine pieces of silver in my pocket. I had no idea what to do with it, but if nothing, I’ll leave it in front of a shrine. Now, we questioned one goblin named Fizz. What an awfull name, makes me want to rid him of his head. But, we promised to leave him alive if he provides usefull information, and he did. He told us of his camp and of hostages. Two of them, one fitting the description of Gundren. Interesting.

Now, we left and secured the carriage in the forest nearby. You may ask why I haven’t told written of it earlier, nor of the road. The answer is simple. I was inside, practicing my performance, and with it, my flute.

So, we went forward on our path to the Goblin nest. There, we found a cave from which a stream of water went. We snuck besides the river to see into the cave, noticing there were noises from the other side of the water. I quickly decided it was time for another lullaby as I got a little closer. Quieting all the noises, I got us rid of a potential threat. That is when we went a little forward into the cave and I got tasked with carrying a lantern.

I had nothing against carrying it, but having two hands free is better than having only one free. Still, when we got to the dangerous part, I left it on the floor. Ah, almost forgot. Before entering, my brother decided to leave caltrops if anything tries to escape. Smart move, but it slowed me down more than the enemy. But that’s a later part of the story

There were two chained worgs in the cave which we had to bring down. Elthanias used his spells while I tried with mine. My brother wanted to fire a flaming arrow, though he didn’t really succeed, only managing to get one regular shot against those creatures. Dragar, on the other hand, fought close combat with the wolf, losing his flail at one point. We managed to get them, though. Too bad they had to die.

That’s when we noticed a platform. Luckily, I brought a grappling hook so we managed to climb up there. When I say we, I mean my brother and the dragonborn, as the platform was too small to bear anyone else. There was a worg there, and a bugbear. Atleast, that’s what they saw while me and Elthanias stayed down. When they managed to advance, though, we got up too. Since moving on the rope isn’t my everyday activity, however much Dragar forces excersizes, I was a little confused, not really able to see much the first few seconds. I did see the silhouette of the bugbear running away, though.

Besides, I coudln’t help much anyway, so I got my grappling hook back, seing a worg down there a little later. Huh, weird. Anyway, I helped my brother recover from the wounds he managed to get so soon. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have nothing against him. I’m giving my best to protect him. But I can’t protect him from himself.

Anyway, there were goblins again. One of the reasons I hate them is, I feel this entry is getting much larger then usual. My brother demonstrated his martial arts again, even manipulating arrows. He repeated that trick later, too. So, we managed to fend them off, as well as other goblins goblins later, which we saw on a bridge. Well, I had to help my brother heal again, and my energy, both regular and magical, was at it’s end. I can’t wait to train myself even more.

So… My brother went to meditate to refill his inner reserves of energy, while the rest of us waited. And, the suprise wasn’t pleasant. Around ten goblins arrived, maybe in a patrol? Ofcourse, the bugbear was with them. Dragar tried to scare them with his mighty, deep voice. Elthanias tried to agree with them, persuade them. While I tried to tell them a big fat lie, how there’s more of us then there is of them. And, it worked… For a split second. We had to wake up my brother while Elthanias prepared to use his magic. Dragar was ready already, since he was attacked by them a minute before.

I, on the other hand, holded my brother in the air, on my shoulders, so he can see above the others. Despite my violent shaking at first, he managed to knock one of them down. Later, when I somehow kept his balance by being still, he missed. Dragar took some of them down with his flail while Elthanias did the same with his magic. When my brother decided to chase after the escaping bugbear, I took my dagger, throwing it precisly enough to slay one of them. It’s one of the reasons I’m still sad for not being the sneaky-stabby one in the party.

Ah, yes.I wanted to talk about my morality too, how it’s as stable as Elthanias’s magic. How, at one point, I want to slay every one of my enemies, and how sometimes, rarely, I feel the need to spread mercy. Maybe I am becoming a better person? I doubt it, though.

So, We got every single goblin, except one. The bugbear was still running, my brother catching up. The goblin ran too, but Dragar didn’t care. He was also after the leader. I decided to take care of the little guy, falling on my way down. I guess I didn’t really see where the way was going. This was the first time I was harmed on a mission, though. Damn, my record is ruined.

So, I was lying there, with the goblin. There was water running, and I noticed we were near the place where we took care of those worgs. So, the goblin got up, and I tried pulling it down again, but failing. Though, Elthanias also failed, trying to use one of the more powerfull spells. He then ran away in fear, for some reason. I got up then, realising this isn’t the time to joke around. The dagger I threw earlier was picked up, and luckily, because now I used it to slay the last goblin.

Ah, and, in case I do have a demon possessing me, he decided to act again. I blacked out here, only faintly remembering falling on the caltrops on the way out. Or, maybe, I hit my head? Any way, I don’t remember the details, but we caught up to the bug bear, delivered the groceries and found Gundren was missing.

This isn’t the end though. The next two entries, or one if I manage to compress the story, will be dedicated to the rest of this mission, and the mistery of Gundred’s dissapearance. Because, the only person we found was a human, maybe the one he was traveling with. And that human was dead.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - 8th June 2016 - Part 1

Sometimes it’s not about an epic adventure. Sometimes you just need a good dungeon crawler. (Or in this case – cave crawler). It was a feat that, even though successful, left us with more questions than answers.

We were employed by a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker to deliver his cart of assorted goods from Neverwinter to Phandalin. It was supposed to be an easy two-day travel, so I took the job to finally end this adventure dry spell we’ve been going through for the past few weeks. A couple of my comrades had the same idea, so Dragar took the reins, with Argetlam by his side, while his brother Tarian and I sat in the back, him practicing his flute playing, me studying the most recent book on the arcane I got from the library. In case Gundren is not there when we deliver the goods (as he’s supposedly travelling around with a friend), we were instructed to leave them with ‘Barthen’s Provisions’ (probably his business partner). We harnessed a couple of oxen, hooked them up to the cart and did some last minute shopping. I bought a healing potion this time, and Argetlam bought some locks again, together with a couple of meters of chain (which he immediately used to close the barrels of ale shut – so that we don’t even think of trying to “just taste it”). And we were off.

The first day went by. As the sun was setting we’ve reached a waystone just off the road, a place where many a traveller rested their weary selves, knowing they would be safe. We put up our tents, made a fire and quickly scouted the perimeter (just in case). Dragar took first watch, followed by Argetlam and Tarian. This time I got to sleep through the night. Thanks, guys. We woke up at the break of dawn to make the most of the day. We dismantled the campsite and continued onwards.

After a couple of hours we’ve reached a fork in the road, with a sign pointing us left towards Phandalin. Dragar suddenly stopped the cart shortly after. There seemed to be an obstacle in the middle of the road, but we couldn’t distinguish what it was from this distance. We got off the cart and carefully approached what we could now see were two dead horses. A classic highwaymen ambush. We heard rustling from the bushes on the left side of the road, so Argetlam took his bow and fired up an arrow smack dab in the middle of it, which resulted in a scream filled with utmost terror. Filthy goblinses. Tarian quickly followed with a soothing tune aimed at that same bush that put however many of them were there to sleep. I was just about to cast my own sleep spell on the suspicious looking stirring shrubbery on the opposite side when I noticed that I somehow forgot my staff back in the cart, so I quickly dashed back to get it only to find out that Argetlam (in his infinite wisdom) chained it down to the ale barrels. Goddamnit, man. While I was trying to dislodge it, four more goblins started shooting arrows at us from that very bush, luckily mostly missing, as Dragar quickly put his shield up, making a decent cover for himself and the oxen (because I certainly wouldn’t want to drag this cart on my back). I finally managed to get my staff back, so I got behind Dragar and put the goblins to sleep. Well, three of them, at least. One of them resisted and started to run away, so I hit him with a Ray of Frost to slow him down and Argetlam managed to take him down with a swift arrow to the skull. We’ve gathered the rest of the sleeping party and put them out of their misery. All but one. A grotesque little creature named Fizz. He told us how they caught a dwarf and a human travelling on this road, killed their horses, and took them back to their cave. After a bit of convincing from Dragar (and a lot of shrieking from Fizz) he agreed to take us to the cave (but he’s not going in, as the others will kill him). Before we embarked towards the cavern, we searched the dead horses for some useful items, but the only thing we found was an empty scroll case. Hm… We chained the goblin up, cleared the road of the horse carcasses and pulled the cart aside and a bit into the woods, to keep it away from the curious gazes of the passers-by, and made our way north towards the cave. (Just before we continued onwards, Tarian cut the ears off the dead goblins – as a trophy, he said.)

As we were closing in, Fizz became increasingly restless and jittery, out of fear that we’ll take him with us, so that even Dragar had difficulties containing him. Once we got the view of the cave’s entrance in the distance, we chained the goblin up to a tree and shoved Argetlam’s sweaty, smelly sock in his mouth, so that he can’t scream and warn the others. Needless to say, Fizz was thrilled. There was a stream coming out of the cave, so we hid in the bushes on the left bank and slowly sneaked towards the entrance. As we approached it we heard a murmur coming from across the creek, again, from the bushes. No doubt a sentry crew. We couldn’t distinguish how many of them were there, so we tried to lure them out in plain sight. I used a Minor Illusion trick to produce a sound of footsteps stomping through the water, but they hadn’t noticed anything (dumb animals), so Tarian sneaked a bit closer, with his brother covering him from behind and lulled them to sleep with another gentle tune. The chatter died out, and the goblins followed in the same fashion.

We approached the entrance and heard growling coming from an opening to the right, a few steps in, so Argetlam put a couple of spike traps right at the exit, just in case whatever’s in there decides to chase us out. We saw two worgs chained up in a dark chamber, roaring and snarling, trying to yank away. For now we seemed to be safe, but we were still being careful so Argetlam got one with an arrow, so Dragar could engage them in close combat. He tried to hit one right across its mug, but the beast somehow managed to catch the chain in its mouth and jerk it away from him. I managed to hit one with a Ray of Frost, so Dragar finished it off with a swift blow with his shield. While this was happening, Argetlam decided to check out the size of the chamber, so he started wrapping one of his arrow tips in cloth, so he can light it up on one of the torches. We eventually got them both, and Argetlam shot his flaming arrow across the room, driving it in a pile of rubble on the other end. The said rubble lead upwards to a small opening, barely big enough to fit a person through. Tarian brought out his grappling hook, so Dragar and Argetlam could climb up. There was only enough room for two people on the small platform above. Tarian and I turned to watch the entrance. There was light coming through the hole and the guys saw a worg sleeping by the campfire. Not wasting any time, Argetlam shot an arrow and hit it in the shoulder blade, sadly just missing the eye. The beast howled in pain and started thrashing around throwing cinder all over the place. Right then a gigantic figure emerged in the firelight. It was, of course, a bugbear. No doubt the leader of the goblin crew. A decision had to be made; target the bugbear and try and take him down or finish off the worg. Dragar suggested they take out the worg first, so Argetlam shot another arrow at him, bringing him down. Of course, now the bugbear knew exactly where we were, so the guys were quick to squeeze through the hole and onto the platform on the other side and Tarian and I quickly climbed the rope and did the same.

The bugbear ran back through the passageway and we heard more goblins closing in, but none came out. They were waiting for us on the other side, but we couldn’t determine their position, as their voices were drowned out by the thundering sound of streaming water, so Argetlam decided to dash across the room and throw a quick glance towards the darkness with his elf eyes. As he was lurching across, a couple of arrows and darts came flying at him. Luckily he managed to catch two of them mid-air, otherwise he would now be dead. This gave us a general idea of their positions, so Dragar turned the corner with me right behind him and while he was deflecting their salvo with his shield I managed to put them all to sleep. Tarian ran over to his brother to mend his wounds, while Dragar and I went to investigate the knocked out goblins.

In this next room we saw a waterfall on the right side, turning into the stream that we saw coming here. We were just about to relieve these worthless fiends of their miserable existence, when yet another worg came rushing through the entrance on the other side. Dragar pulled his shield up and engaged the beast with his flail, while I quickly shot a Ray of Frost at him to slow him down. While the two of them were in a skirmish I took the chance and bashed the skull of the dozing goblins in with my staff, just so there are no surprises. Tarian and, now partly healed, Argetlam joined us just as Dragar bludgeoned the worg to death. We continued through the other exit and reached a bridge stretching across the stream, with two new goblins waiting us on the other side. They started shooting arrows and darts at us and this time not only did Argetlam manage to catch one of the arrows, in split second he turned it around and sent it back flying towards the goblin, knocking him down. Dragar dashed across, his shield up and tackled the other one down. We quickly managed to take care of both of them, so we moved on through the next tunnel.

On our way we passed by another dark cavity on the right side, from which yet another two goblins leaped out and ambushed us. Tarian and I started casting various spells, while Dragar and Argetlam dealt with them in a more… physical manner. They, of course, couldn’t stand a chance. A couple of steps forward we saw light coming from the next chamber. We decided to rest for a bit so Argetlam could meditate and heal, and get his ki back, but not long after we heard goblin chatter accompanied by the bugbear’s angry growls. We carefully peered around the corner and saw a half a dozen of them on a platform, taunting us, luring us out. “We came for the dwarf!”, Dragar shouted. There was no (coherent) answer, so I tried my hand at it: “All your friends are dead! Be smart and surrender! Don’t suffer the same fate!” Still nothing. Dragar then peered around the corner and a whole bunch of arrows started flying towards us, a couple of which found their way to Dragar’s flesh. I again stood right behind him, while Tarian and Argetlam were in the back (Argetlam still meditating). We closed the narrow pass with our bodies so that Dragar could take them from the shadows as they rushed us, I managed to put a couple of them to sleep again. Thankfully the commotion jolted Argetlam from his meditation, but now he struggled to find a good position with a line of sight, so Tarian lifted him on his shoulders as he wielded his mighty bow. They managed to take a couple of them down this way, but soon enough the bugbear decided to charge at us. He suffered a couple of swift blows from Dragar, and a couple of arrows from Argetlam in the process, so luckily he decided to make a run for it, darting right past us and disappearing through the gap on the left. The terrain in the narrow passage was rough, riddled with boulders and rubble, so we had to be careful when descending. Argetlam jumped off Tarian and immediately followed after the bugbear, with Dragar right behind him. The walkway lead back to the stream which, of course, lead outside, so we heard the huge beast charging towards the exit, only to be met by Argetlam’s cleverly-placed traps which slowed him down considerably. I was considering checking out the interior, while the guys are dealing with (now weakened) bugbear, but Tarian decided to go after his brother, so I played along.

We descended the dangerous path and just as we’ve reached the stream we heard a shriek from behind us and after a few moments saw the one remaining goblin tumble down into the water. He was pretty beat at this point so, in hindsight, maybe this was an overkill, but I chose to finish him off with a Chromatic Orb spell. For some reason my casting failed miserably, but that wasn’t the entire problem… I felt a sudden surge of raw magic pulsing through my entire body. This hasn’t happened in quite a while, but it seemed as if though my wild magic was acting up again. I’m not sure what happened next, but all of a sudden I look over at the goblin who suddenly morphed into this gargantuan,vomit green beast with teeth the size of a small saber and horns that looked like they could bring down a tree, staring at me with its hellfire eyes. Needless to say I freaked the fuck out and ran away screaming bloody murder, stumbling across the boulders back to the safety of the dark corridor. I’ve no idea how much time I spent there, but the commotion suddenly quieted down, so I mustered up what remained of my fragile courage and peeked down at the stream. The goblin, now back to its original form, was dead, and Tarian obviously got out of the cave by now. What the hell happened here?? Anyway, I followed the brook outside the cave and found my comrades in arms standing over the dead bugbear. They told me how Argetlam had jumped it from behind and started beating it to a pulp with his silver fist, alongside Dragar wielding his trusty flail. Now that we’ve successfully cleared the goblin cave, we came back inside and searched it top to bottom.

We returned to the final chamber (the one where the bugbear charged us) and climbed the stairs leading up to a room overlooking the area. In there we found a dead human, but no sign of our employer dwarf whatsoever. We then traced our steps back, and when we got to the area with the pyre we found some crates with a blue lion silhouette on them, near the back wall. Inside we found an assortment of goods, some money (which we, of course, shared equally among us) and, what seemed most interesting, a jade frog statuette with golden eyes. We couldn’t figure out its exact origin, but it must’ve come from the far east. It was way too cool to sell it, so we’ve decided to keep it and display it at the guild for everyone to enjoy. That was pretty much it, with regards to the cave, so we headed back towards the cart.

On our way back we found Fizz still chained up (meaning no one passed by this whole time) and, as agreed, let him go. We were just about to tell him he better warn the rest of his filthy goblin pack about us, but he already disappeared among the trees. We got back to our cart, harnessed the oxen and made our way towards Phandalin.

We reached the city a couple of hours later and, you’ve guessed, Gundren was nowhere to be found. We left the cart with ‘Barthen’s Provisions’, as agreed, and got our pay (10 gold per head, yay). Some questions left unanswered, though… Who was that human? What ever happened to the dwarf? And why did he hire a band of sellswords to deliver a simple cart of goods from A to B? What was in the empty scroll case? Something’s not right, here…

The Legacy of Alaric the Red - 20th April 2016

Great success! We found his tomb and retrieved the binding ring. The northern tribes are united once again, under the rule of Queen Tuzneuda.

Our tomb raiding story starts about two weeks ago. I was sitting at my usual farthermost corner table at The Platinum Dragon Inn, drinking some pretty decent elven wine and studying some old arcane texts from the local monastery’s archives, when I heard the front door opening, so I lift my head. In comes Dragar, our Dragonborn Fighter and comrade in arms. He takes his heavy armor off and sets it down on a table with a thud. He skims the room, his cold breath steaming around his mouth. He notices Krack, the Half-Orc Sorcerer, in one corner, drinking mead, his poison of choice. Couple of tables away, the two brothers (well, half-brothers) Argetlam and Tarian Welden, Wood Elf Monk and Half-Elf Bard, respectively, are talking about their father, whom Argetlam never met, and how they should definitely look him up one day. Speaking of ‘up’, Caelynn (pronounced with a ‘K’, for some reason) was doing her usual weird thing sitting on one of the vaulted ceiling beams, observing the room. I guess it’s an Elf Rogue thing. In any case, it was pretty much an everyday sight at our base of operations. The inn itself is part of the bastion stationed atop a gorge within a region called ‘The Border’ where the lawful and the lawless meet. We turned our heads as we heard footsteps coming down the stairs and saw Benito, the Dwarf Bard I met on my last adventure. He points to the six of us and says: “The old lady wants to see you upstairs. She has a mission for you guys.” This was… weird, to say the least. Usually quests and missions are posted on the guild’s board. What’s with all the secrecy? Then I remembered hearing about not one, but two barbarian delegations from the far north visiting the fort, so maybe that was it (as nothing new was posted on the board). So we got up (or in Caelynn’s case down) and made our way upstairs. Dragar decided to leave his armor on the table, so before he came along he used his freezing breath to glaze it with a thin layer of ice, marking it as ‘the property of Dragar Kilprax Dotrin’.

We got upstairs and entered the room on the far side of the hall. Sitting at this massive oak desk there was our boss, our matron, Visiguard. Maybe the desk only looked large against her petite hobbitish stature, as she was barely peeking over the top. As we walked in we also noticed two people standing on the side; a burly black guy and a fair-skinned, strong, red haired woman caped in polar bear pelt. The barbarians, undeniably. Visiguard made the introductions. The woman was Tuzneuda, princess of the northern tribes and a sole heir to the late king Theodorik, accompanied by her guardian Bindu. It seems that after her father’s death the twelve tribes of the north fell into a strife, the cause of which was Klovik “Longlegs” II, head of the Kutrigur tribe and, obviously, a usurper to the throne. Tuzneuda told us about her ancestor, Alaric the Red, a hero of the north who united the twelve tribes many centuries ago. It is told that Alaric wore a black ring/band on his beard which he used to bind twelve braids together, symbolizing the unity of the tribes. He was, as is tradition, buried with it, so Tuzneuda wanted us to find his burial ground and retrieve the band, thus helping her claim the throne again and end the rivalry between the tribes. Our compensation would be any and all valuables that we would find in his tomb, which she will gladly relinquish to the guild, as she is only interested in the black band. Not an unusual deal, but we still glanced towards Visiguard, and she nodded in approval. Now, since the whereabouts of the crypt were presently unknown, we are to go to our monastery’s library and find the book titled “The Life and Deeds of Alaric the Red”, which should contain some information that would help us on our quest. Tuzneuda and Bindu thanked us for our kind help and headed back to their lodgings. “Be wary, though”, said the matron as they were leaving the room, “As the princess is not the only one that is seeking help from the local organizations. My sources are saying that Klovik has employed the services from our rivals ‘The Jade Tiger Guild’, so tread lightly.” Just what we needed… the Shou of Kara-Tur.

We got to the monastery and the entrance to the archives building. The whole complex was very ascetic, as is usually the case with monasteries. As we were entering the building we were greeted by one of the monk librarians. He helped me out numerous times before, so I’ve asked him if they kept “The Life and Deeds of Alaric the Red”. He seemed very excited to see all of us, saying how there’s usually little to no visitors to the library, but how today we’re already the second group to come here and ask for that very book. Uh-oh… Jade alert. We immediately asked if they’re still here, which he confirmed, so we rushed to the main chamber and ran into them just as they were heading out, carrying the book with Alaric’s crest on it – a sort of a Celtic swastika against the setting sun over a meandering river. There were five of them and, not gonna lie, they all looked the same to me. Now, they were pretty hostile towards us right from the start, so there was no use in persuading them to hand us the book, so Krack and Dragar tried to intimidate them, but to no avail. They just started screeching and taunting us, one of them (the leader, we guessed) waving the book above his head. Yellow swines… There was no time for squabble, we had to think fast, so Argetlam shot the book from the leader’s hand with one of his darts and I managed to catch it mid-air with my Mage Hand spell, lifting it out of their reach, 30 ft above us. And then chaos ensued. The five of them scattered around almost “instantaneousshly”, surrounding us, when we noticed that Argetlam disappeared somewhere. Caelynn quickly climbed the bookshelves to get some terrain advantage, while Dragar stepped in the middle, brandishing his flail and shield, with Krack standing right behind him, ready to cast some Fire Bolts (a grand idea in such a burn-happy place). Tarian and I stood in the back, me trying to keep the book levitating up in the air, and him getting ready to buff us all with his Bardic abilities. Two of the Tigers started flanking us, throwing shurikens. Dragar managed to deflect most of them with his shield, but a couple found their way towards me, so I took some damage, but I powered through. Keeping my eyes on the book I’ve noticed that one of the Tigers climbed to the top of the bookshelf and was just about to grab it, when all of a sudden a couple of shelves down the row started falling over like dominoes. Losing ground he jumped and grabbed the book, now hanging from it in mid-air, which made it a tad more difficult to maintain the spell. As everything started crumbling down we saw Argetlam far in the back, grinning like a bushel basketful of possum heads. His foolhardiness paid off this time (kind of), as one of the Tigers got trapped under the rubble, but taking Dragar along with him. Luckily, the ice dragon managed to free himself easily. At the same time Caelynn managed to keep her balance and dropped right on top of one of the flankers, cutting him down with her rapier. She got knocked out in the process, somehow, so Tarian quickly stepped in and sang her back to health. Krack started to take care of the other flanker Tiger with Fire Bolts (thankfully being very precise), while Dragar managed to shake it off and pummel their chief down, knocking him out cold. Tarian, seeing that I’m struggling with the added weight, put the dangling Tiger to sleep, rendering him unconscious as he slammed on the floor, and I managed to pull the book back and hand it to Dragar for safekeeping. I immediately turned to the one remaining flanker and cast Ray of Frost, but that still wasn’t enough to take him down. Now, seeing all his comrades down he starts charging towards the exit, Caelynn chasing after him. Being slowed down by the spell he was definitely no match for her, but Argetlam, in his unending state of haste, also started sprinting after him. The lone Tiger dropped a smoke bomb trying to get away, but Argetlam wasn’t fazed by that and saw his movement through the smoke. Caelynn also wanted in on the action so she starts shouting to Argetlam to tell her where the guy was, but he was having none of that. That guy is his and his alone. Anyway, they caught him pretty easily and brought him back for questioning. The guy was thick as a brick, though, so we had to wake the chief up. Before that we had to make sure we have the right thing, so Dragar handed me the book back, and I skimmed through the pages, looking for any relevant bits. This was indeed it, but there was a page missing (of course). Rummaging through their stuff, Argetlam happened upon a cylinder-shaped leather container, like the ones where you keep the scrolls, but being as level-headed as always (/s), he just threw it away. Luckily Tarian, always looking over his dimwitted older brother, picked it up and looked inside. Sure enough, the missing page. It was a map outlining the location of Alaric the Red’s final resting place. Once we were sure we got everything, Dragar smacked the leader awake so we could question him about Klovik and the orders they got. Pretty much what we’ve guessed; Klovik had the same idea as Tuzneuda. It was time to report back to Visiguard. As we were walking out, escorting the Tigers to the guild’s holding cell (one of them calling Argetlam a traitor, which was odd), the monks came rushing in. Witnessing the mess we left behind they start screaming at us (never in my life have I heard a monk scream), so we tried to ease the situation a bit, but they were beyond furious. Needless to say, we got banned from the library (I’ll have to talk to Visiguard to take care of that. For me, at least).

Back at the guild we reported in with the matron and briefed her on the events that transpired at the monastery. She wasn’t too happy about it, obviously, but since there was no other way… Anyway, she referred us to Gunther, our head of supply, to stockpile before we head out the next morning. Gunther set up shop on the ground floor, right next to the inn, and essentially carried the basics. I asked for some enchanted items, but no dice. Even so, at those prices? Fuggedaboutit. Dragar and Krack bought some oil flasks, Caelynn got herself a healing potion and Argetlam went for… a lock. A lock … Oh-kaaay… We stepped out of the shop and got into a carriage that Visiguard arranged for us. We noticed that the horses were exceptionally fresh this morning. Dragar took the reins, with Argetlam as his crossbow rider, and the rest of us got to chill in the coach. And we were off…

According to the map, this will be a week long trip. Not only that, but the location of the tomb appeared to be far off to the west instead of the north, which was unexpected, at first. During this off time I got the chance to study the book in more detail and we found out that Alaric was perceived as ‘The Sun God’, and the red color symbolized not only his hair and beard, but also victory, as in the blood of his enemies, thus the red setting sun on his crest. And where does the sun set? That’s right, in the west. I also saw mention of Typhon, his trusty black steed, and learned some more tidbits about the history of the north. Flipping through the last couple of pages a piece of paper fell out. I picked it up and, to my excitement, recognized it as a Daylight spell scroll. That’s, like, a level 3 spell, bro! At any rate, as the days were passing by, the civilization gave way to wilderness, with only an occasional settlement scattered about. After about seven days of travel we got to our destination, a hamlet called Woodland Vale.

We got out of the carriage and were met by a crowd gathered to see who we are and what’s going on. They obviously don’t see a lot of strangers in these parts. We’ve asked them about Alaric’s gravesite, but they didn’t know what we’re talking about. They did tell us, though, about the mound that lies beyond the forest, next to the river, that’s said to be a tomb of a nameless ancient warrior, but that nobody really goes that far into the marshes. They were afraid of a tribe of gnolls roaming around. Since that was most likely it, we started getting ready to head to the forest, but not before we secured a tour guide, much to our Wood Elf’s displeasure and, might I add, jealousy. Our guide was a burly young lad named Djohnni (the ‘D’ is silent, he said). He agreed to take us to the tomb in exchange for 12 gold pieces. That was a little steep, especially for such a remote little community. Luckily I remembered I had that fugly, rugged leucrotta hide from my last adventure in my bag. I took the hide out and presented it to him as an alternative compensation. He observed it for a bit, then put it on; “Alright, this hide and 2 gold pieces”. Fair enough. I gave him the money and we were on our way.

I took us a couple of hours, but we finally got there. Well, close to there. Right where the forest was turning into marsh we could see the mound and the meandering river about half a kilometer away, but Djohnni was too afraid to go any nearer. That wasn’t the deal, so Krack tried to incentivise him by giving him one of his knives in exchange for him to take us all the way there. Djohnni was determined, though, and you could clearly see fear in his eyes. We figured that it was no use in pushing him any further, so Krack, being a kind hearted piece of Orc meat, gave him the knife anyway, as a thanks. Djohnni was stunned by such gratuity, so he started to fiddle around his pockets until he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Krack. To his amazement, it was a Bless spell scroll. Krack was lost for words and Djohnni obviously did not know what he was doing, bless his heart. We parted ways with our guide and continued towards the mound.

As we were closing in we saw a campsite of sorts on top of the mound, with three hideous gnolls gnawing at some bones. Luckily we noticed them before they figured out someone’s approaching their camp, so we quickly hid among the trees and bushes. Argetlam set one of his traps between us and the gnolls (Dragar and Krack soaking it in oil from their flasks so it burns, if necessary) and we all tried to blend in with the grove. And by that I mean that Krack and I tried, while everyone else actually managed to make themselves disappear. Yes, even Dragar, who hid behind a big tree. Caelynn and Argetlam were somewhere up in the branches, while Tarian smeared mud all over his face. Krack and I, while being in the back, still stood in plain sight, so when Dragar used his shield to reflect the sunlight and draw those foul beasts out, we were the first ones they saw. They ran towards us, screeching, so we got ready. The trap was only made to capture one creature, so while one of them got caught, now seething in oil, the other two continued onward paying no regard to their fallen comrade. As they were passing him by, Dragar stepped out of his cover and slammed one of them with his shield, knocking him down. The other one was met by Argetlam, boosted to perfection by his brother. He jumped off the branch, did a double axel and landed on the creature with an elbow to the head. Caelynn dropped beside Dragar to help him out and they soon dealt a deadly blow. Meanwhile, the one in the trap got out. He was just about to attack when Tarian projected an ominous song to his mind, instilling him with fear. He turned back and tried to get away, but Krack and I quickly finished him off with a couple of well directed spells. We climbed up the knoll to inspect the camp, but didn’t find anything of relevance, so we examined the perimeter a bit closer. Three standing stones on the eastern side of the mound made for the main entrance. We didn’t want to walk into a trap, so we circled around and found a huge slab on the northern side, which could’ve been a side entrance. In the meantime Argetlam left us to go check out the river (no doubt the one on the crest) and came back with a frog. Let that sink in. At any rate, after a fruitless effort to push the boulder with our bare hands, Dragar figured we should try and make a lever of sorts. He went back to the gnoll camp and returned with a sturdy branch. We were in after a few minutes. Argetlam threw his frog in to scout the perimeter. Sigh…

We entered a dark corridor, about a hundred feet long, walls decorated with reliefs of berserker warriors. We got to a fork with one passage leading west, the other one east. We didn’t want to split up, so we opted for the westbound passage first and reached a double door. Being cautious again I used Mage Hand to open the doors, which revealed a chamber with frescoes and tapestries all over the walls, depicting ancient barbarian warriors, no doubt the founders of the twelve clans. The center of the room featured Alaric’s symbol – the setting sun over the meandering river. More important than all that, what good is a king’s tomb without his skeleton guards? And there they were, of course. Twelve of them lined against the walls, each one wearing a helmet and standing beneath a shield, each with a different clan’s coat of arms on it. We needed to be extra careful here, so of course Argetlam swooped in, took the shield from one of the skeletons and smashed it over the head with it, crumbling it to down to a pile of bones, then turned around and dashed towards the door, carrying the shield. All that in a span of approximately 12 seconds. Of course, just as he was about to reach the exit Alaric’s skeletal friends woke up, eyes glowing bright red, and started marching towards our cocksure Monk. Rendered optionless, he flings the shield towards them, doing little to no damage in the process, but at least slowing them down a bit. He made it through the doors, closed them and, guess what, used that lock he bought from Gunther to seal them shut. Huh… Yeah, no, he couldn’t have predicted that. Anyhoo, we got into formation; Dragar and Krack in the front, myself behind them, followed by Tarian and Argetlam, and Caelynn in the back. It was not long until the bony army started to break through the door. As soon as they made a big enough hole, Krack and Dragar threw in some leftover oil flasks. Once the doors came down – showtime. Krack blasted a Cone of Fire at them, burning down at least half. The rest of them emerged through the smoke and blaze, one of them coming straight at Dragar. They went into a clinch, but he managed to wrestle it off and break its skull with one swift swing of the flail. Caelynn took one out from way back, with her trusty crossbow, and I did my usual Ray of Frost thing. Tarian and Argetlam banded together again, Tarian boosting his brother while he lurched amid the remaining three skeletons with a whirlwind kick. All he did was just clear out the smoke, because he missed all three of them. They were pretty weakened at this point, so we managed to take them out pretty easily. After the inferno died out we checked out the room once again. There was nothing else to see in there except the molten remains of shields running down the walls in a silver sludge. Krack and Argetlam figured they’d make some use of that so Krack dipped the tip of his staff in it, to give it bit more pizzazz, and Argetlam dipped his… Fists. And he started calling himself… Silverfist. Btw. what ever happened to that frog he threw in?

We left the skeleton chamber and went down the other passage. Caelynn scouted the area a bit earlier so we knew what to expect. Two doors, one on the left, the other one on the right-hand side of the corridor. They were both covered in mortar, so I took my dagger (the non-enchanted one) and scrubbed some of it off the door on the right. It came off pretty easily, so we opened the door and went in. The inscription above it read “The tomb of Olafstrud, Chief to the Kutrigur clan” (Klovik’s ancestor, neat). We chose this one for no particular reason, as the other inscription read “The tomb of Skalagrin, Chief to the Ant clan”, so it was all the same to us. It was a sepulcher, alright, with big stone grave in the middle of the room. Something else drew Argetlam’s attention, though. A shiny golden bow, mounted on the wall right next to us. He took it down without thinking, of course (What are you, a fucking magpie??). This, naturally, triggered a not so favorable event for us. The stone cover slid off, revealing Olafstrud in all his wighty might. He sat up and said “You have disturbed the tomb of the king. Now you die.” Simple and to the point. As soon as he stepped out of his grave, Dragar met him with a swift blow to the chin. He was very quick to return the favor with his sword, though, so Caelynn stepped in and started cutting him up with her rapier. Neither that nor Krack’s Fire Bolt did exactly a ton of damage. This did not look good. Luckily, we remembered that wights are vulnerable to light, and I still had that Daylight spell scroll from the book. This was a level three spell, however, so I had to use my staff to help channel the power. As I was reading through the scroll, the tip of my staff started shining white hot (teehee). A blinding ray of sunlight hit the wight, weakening it enough so Argetlam could pounce it and he dealt some pretty severe damage with his silver fists. Dragar then tackled it on the ground and Caelynn continued poking it with her rapier while he was holding it down. Seeing that bludgeoning damage was taking the toll on the creature, I took my staff and shoved it down its throat. That did the trick, surprisingly. Seeing the light from the staff beaming through its eyes and ears was awesome. No rest for the wicked, of course. The moment we finished Olafstrud up we heard a growling noise coming from behind that other door. Soon enough the door broke down and we saw another wight staring at us from the doorstep. Hey, Skalagrin. As soon as the creature stepped in, Argetlam lunged at it, throwing several silvery blows. This time it did not go as planned, even though this one was also weakened by the Daylight spell. He got him once, but the second time his fist got stuck in it and the silver padding broke, giving the wight the chance to strike him with its sword. Argetlam fell down and Skalagrin raised his sword to finish him, but I somehow managed to disarm it with my Mage Hand. Dragar took the chance to tackle him down, and beat him to a pulp with Caelynn and Krack’s help. We waited a few seconds just in case some other undead creature was about to show up, but everything was finally quiet. Since there was no other passage in either room, we looted the two chiefs and went back out.

The sun had started to set, so we didn’t have much time left. We were just about to head back to the main entrance when we noticed that a new one had opened on the western side, overlooking the river. This must’ve had something to do with the whole “setting sun” symbolics. We entered a large chamber and were met by a huge three headed statue of the god Trihead. According to the lore in the book we figured that the heads represented the past, the future and the present. There was a door on the right hand side that featured Alaric’s crest, and above it his motto “Live every day as if it were your last.” This was it, we just had to figure out how to enter, as it was, of course, sealed. At that moment, the statue spoke; “In order to enter the sacred burial ground you have to prove that you are the rightful descendants of Alaric the Red and provide an answer to the following conundrum – It never occurred before, it will never occur again, and it is almost gone.” Great, another riddle. The last one I’ve encountered in one of my previous adventures remained unsolved to this day. But then it hit me. The answer was in Alaric’s motto. I turned to the statue and said “The answer is: today.” For a few seconds there was nothing but silence. But then the door started to open and the statue said “You’ve answered correctly. Descendants of Alaric the Red, you are welcome to enter his final resting place.” We went inside and saw a massive stone grave. We’ve opened it and there he was, the legend that is Alaric the Red, The Sun God, King of the twelve clans, the black band binding the twelve braids on his beard. Buried alongside him was his trusty steed Typhon, among a variety of riches. We took the black band and all the treasures that we could carry, including a very fancy bow (much fancier than the one in Olafstrud’s tomb), some enchanted Slippers of Climbing which went to Caelynn, and the Ring of Warmth, which I took on merit for solving the goddamn riddle. It was finally the time to head back to the guild.

Days later we arrived at the inn, where we were met by both Tuzneuda and that prick Klovik. Klovik was first to step forward and offered us unthinkable wealth if we gave him the ring instead of Tuzneuda. “No chance, our word is our bond” said Dragar with a thundering voice and handed the ring to our matron Visiguard who gave it to the Queen. Tuzneuda thanked us immensely and said that we’ve made an ally, but more importantly, a friend, in the North. On the other hand, Klovik said this wasn’t the last time we’ve heard of him and that we will regret not siding with him. Yeah, whatever. Mission successful!

Northern Wilds - Alarik the Red

“Vizigarda asked for us personaly. This is going to be good.” And, oh, how right I was!

Let me start with an introduction (again). My name is Tarian Welden, and I’m a half elf who channels his magic trough music, or sounds in general. It’s a pretty fun thing to do. We arrived at the Platinum Dragon Inn earlier then usual this year. I was pretty glad actually, as I wanted my to improve my coat (or cloak, if you will). Anyway, the reason for such an early arival home is a request from a high positioned barbarian. Let me start from the beginning.

I was sitting in the Inn, drinking the usual magically wine-flavored ale. So, at one point, a dwarf called Benito called some of us upstairs, saying Vizigarda herself wants to see us. The one’s she invited are: Argetlam Welden, my (half) brother trained in martial arts, Elthanias, a fellow magic user and half elf (no music from him though), Dragar, a Dragonborn front-row fighter, Caelynn, a pretty, yet dangerous wood elf. She’s very sneaky from what I saw. And last but certanly not least, a mad half-orc magic user who can’t contain his powers called Krack. Oh, I forgot to list myself. A pretty colorfull combination of people.

So, we enter the room and the guild master, Vizigarda greets us. She’s sitting down, a table definitly not suited for a halfling like her in front of her. We notice two more people, a woman with very pale white skin and long red hair in braids. She wore a skin of a white (polar?) bear as a cape. With her was her bodyguard, a tall black skinned man. He started explaining the situation.

It was a tipical politic problem of inheritance and power. Let me organize what he said and what we’ve learned here. Long ago, there was a great leader named Alarik the red who united twelve barbaric nations. He was a legend, associated with one of their (semi?) Gods which was presented with the Sun. So, after he died, as goes with great leaders, his grave was hidden. We know it’s a hill like looking grave, but we don’t know the location. We have to find the ring which symbolised the unity of the nations (his beard symbolised the warriors, weird, I know). So, they tell us that everything worth something is ours in the resting place of Alarik, except the ring. We have to bring it to her so our guild gains it’s “payment”, which is actually a “unity” of sorts, a companionship between the guild and the nations.

Ofcourse, there’s a complication. There’s this guy named Klovik which seeks power and influence. He started destroying the bonds between nations, possibly even starting to make them wage war on one another. So, he went to this other guild (which I know exists because of who again, Rynn?) named The Jade Tigers. They’re typical human (they all look the same to me, even though I am half human) mercenaries.

So, a library was pointed out, one with information about the grave. The Tigers got there before us, cutting our work in half by finding the book! I mean, we did have to find them, but that was easy. (If you need help, just ask the monks!). So, they show us the book and start laughing. My brother throws a dart, making the book fly out of his hand. While the dart was flying, Elthanias managed to keep the book in the air with a spectral looking hand.

Oh, how we pissed them off! The monks started running away as the humans started introducing themselves and showing their weapons of. Not much of a problem, though. We were ready ourselves, and as the two of them started flanking us from both sides, throwing (literaly) everything they have at us. I was just in the middle when the bookshelves started to fall. I managed to escape, but Dragar and a staff wielding human weren’t. They were stuck there, fighting each other and holding the shelf. Ofcourse my brother was behind all that. I didn’t even notice he was gone though.

So, the battle was a little chaotic, one of the throwers getting hit by fire, something cold, acid and something cold again and again, I was more focused on helping my brother. I played one of our (well, first his then mine if you account for the age diffrence) child lullabies. It worked and he just punched and kicked one guy into oblivion. Caelynn was really stealthy, dissapearing and appearing behind the enemies. It was interesting, until she got knocked out. I came close to her, putting my arm on her shoulder and quietly singing, almost whispering an ancient song. She woke up, and my song was over. I also sent to sleep one (who in the meantime, while I wasn’t looking) grabed the floating book. He fell down (since he had to be in the air to hold the book) and was blasted with fire. Dragar managed to trap the staff wielding guy under the shelf, and the saber guy was ready to attack the dragonborn. The one fighting with my brother managed to land a few blows along with Dragar getting a saber cut. The saber wielding one actually started to run away after that, three of the five men unconcious, and so did the one attacking my brother.

“No one attacks my brother. No one. Especially not a sad little excuse for a creature, human” I said as I tackled the brother-attacking man. I fell on the ground with him, a book fell on his head and knocked him out. It would be ironic if that was the book we were looking for. Anyway, the other one was hunted by my companions, so I made my time interesting by carving simbols onto the one that angered me. Think of it as a goodbye gift, something he’ll remember his mistakes by. He didn’t scream though, as he was asleep. My brother denied the pleasure of killing him though. It’s good that he did, I might have succumbed to my not-so-good side and started killing everyone I wanted to.

So, that was the end of it as we interogated some of them and locked them up in the guild dungeon. We were also outcasted from the library, being destructive and what not. Typical puny peasant minds. We got what we wanted, a book and the map. After getting ready for grave robbing our mission (which includes sleeping), we entered our carriage. Prepared for a seven day trip to the West (suprising, I know. I mean, the barbarian’s live in the North) of the North. It has something to do with the Sun, but as much as the story’s interesting, I have a limited supply of ink for my diary.

We arrived at our last destination, a village nearest to the resting place of Alarik the Red. Some of my companions traded something with the villagers and Elthanias managed to get us a guide. However much I love, respect and trust my brother, this is too foreing of a place for him to show us the way. After reaching a certain point, the guide (whose name was John, a pretty odd name) stoped, not wanting to go further. He said something about a curse. Not the first time curses were mentioned in my life, won’t be the last either. Not a big deal.

There were gnolls situated on the top of the tiny little hill. Three of them, to be exact. We set up some traps (one hunting trap and a bottle of flamable oil. This is where fun begins). We distracted the Gnolls by reflecting sunlight onto them. Well, it worked and they came running towards us. Most of us were blended in, some of us (including me) were looking like trees, or parts of those trees. It was quite funny actually.

So, two of the three gnolls managed to evade the traps as the third steped just right in. The flames were ignited, the gnolls engaged. I waited until one attacked, channeling my energy and chanting a spell on the Fey language, Sylvan. I terrorized him with all I could, assuring he’ll never attack my allies again. And then, just to make it good fun, I made him hear the laughs of his friends, mocking his fear. That was the last he heard as he was killed by the arrow sent by Caelynn. The most gloriously executed kill was the one made by my brother though. He jumped from his tree, doing a double flip in the air spiraling down and hitting one of the gnolls with his elbow.

We went to the Hill, seeing the main entrance wide open. My brother went to the river near the hill, finding and catching a frog wich he later used to check for traps. Wonder if he kept it… Anyway. We checked the main enrance for traps, nothing. Playing it safe, we decided to go with the hidden entrance we found earlier. Barely managing to open it, we went trough a halway, taking a turn and seeing a room full of skeletons with weapons and shields on the wall over their heads. Twelve of them, probably Alarik’s royal guard. Of course my brother took one shield and smashed one skeleton, awaking the rest. They reminded me of legendary revenants, vengence driven undead, the red glow in their hollow eyes.

Ones that were in the room ran outside, closing the door, Dragar holding it with his shield. Argetlam locked them, and a bottle of oil splashing all across the “middle man” between us and skeletons. After a few holes were made, Caelynn and Argetlam shot few arrows inside, killing one of them. Two more bottles of oil were splashed, though inside the room trough the same holes. The fun began at the very moment a flaming bolt set started flying.

It was a glorious site as the oil set fire, the doors exploded and half of the skeletons being blown to bits. So fun playing my flute in all that chaos, helping my brother and other companions kill the rest of the bony enemies off. A few of them were slain when my brother decided to barge in. I used my magic to help him survive when he made a triple kick against the………. Smoke. He missed them all.

Anyway, the skeletons were quickly slain, and that is where I blacked out. I’m thinking of seeing a witch doctor or something. I might be possessed by some demon of sorts that is blocking my memory. I do remember seeing the black ring, though. It was the same glorious feeling of a mission well done that I had last time. I’ll end my entry here.

Oh, and if the demon is the one responsible for my memories, he might also be the one that makes me want to steal, decieve or sometimes even kill some people. I hope he’s gone soon, though. If he’s even there.